Human rights law

International Law · Human rights, conflict and institutions. The idea in plain words, the rules to remember, the mistake to avoid and a worked example, written and checked by Mega Lecture.

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The idea

Modern human rights law began with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the UN General Assembly on 10 December 1948. It is a declaration, not a treaty, but much of it now reflects customary law. Its rights were turned into binding treaty duties by two Covenants of 1966: the ICCPR for civil and political rights and the ICESCR for economic, social and cultural rights. Together the three form the International Bill of Human Rights.

Around this core stand treaties on particular wrongs or groups (genocide, racial discrimination, women, torture, children) and regional systems in Europe, the Americas and Africa, some with their own courts.

Rules to remember

UDHR 1948: General Assembly declaration, not binding as a treaty. ICCPR and ICESCR: adopted 1966, in force 1976.
ICCPR duties are immediate; ICESCR rights are realised progressively, to the maximum of available resources.
Non-derogable even in emergency (ICCPR, Article 4): includes the right to life and freedom from torture and slavery.
First Optional Protocol to the ICCPR: individual complaints to the Human Rights Committee against states that accept it.
Genocide Convention 1948: acts with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group as such.
Racial Discrimination Convention 1965; CEDAW 1979 (women); Convention against Torture 1984 (needs official involvement; no exceptional circumstances justify torture); Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 (under 18; best interests of the child).
Regional: European Convention 1950 (court at Strasbourg); American Convention 1969 (court at San Jose); African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights 1981.

Common mistake

Students call the UDHR a binding treaty or say the ICESCR gives rights that must be fully delivered at once. The UDHR is a declaration, and the ICESCR requires progressive realisation within available resources.

Worked example

State X is a party to the ICCPR but has not accepted the First Optional Protocol. A journalist jailed in X without trial sends a complaint to the Human Rights Committee. Can the Committee examine it?

X is bound by the ICCPR, so the detention may well breach its obligations under the Covenant.
The Committee's power to receive complaints from individuals comes from the First Optional Protocol, not from the Covenant itself.
That power exists only against states that have become parties to the Protocol, and X has not.

Answer: No. X is bound by the Covenant, but the individual complaint procedure is not available against it.

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